Sheltering

Music is one spiritual aid that puts me in touch with the numinous almost immediately. Whether it's Ralph Vaughan Williams or Dan Schutte, or a jazz rendition of Gershwin's "Summertime," I find something of God in listening attentively to music. Recently, I ordered a CD from The Cloisters, the resource center for the Northumbria Community (http://www.northumbriacommunity.org/). Every one of the songs is lovely, and I’m very happy to have the music both on my IPod and on a CD that I can play in the car. The songs include liturgical music (a beautiful "Kyrie") as well as some renditions of familiar renewal music. One song, in particular, a very simple chant, speaks to me most profoundly. Here are the words:

O God and Spirit and Jesu, the Three
From the crown of my head
O, Trinity
to the soles of my feet
My offering be
Come I with my name and my witnessing
Come I with my contrite heart confessing
Come I unto thee Ah, Jesu my king
Ah, Jesu, Jesu
Do thou be my sheltering

What strikes me as important in this particular set of lyrics is the plea to Jesus to “be my sheltering.” It’s a lovely thought that brings images of a mother tenderly holding a child in her arms, of a boat safely anchored in harbor while the storm rages, of a friend holding another in her arms as she grieves the loss of her sister, of God gently picking us up and holding our hand as we take another tentative step on our journey.

The idea of sheltering is not just associated with God and Jesus, however. I think sheltering is, in fact, all of those things we do for others, and more. We long for shelter, for safety, for assurance, especially in the face of all that life throws our way: sons who end up in prison, daughters who end up in conflict with superiors, students who are bullied or who spitefully make fun of their peers. Sheltering provides a pair of strong arms, real or metaphorical to keep us safe in unsafe times.

Mary and Joseph are such stellar examples of two people who sheltered not only each other, but also their infant son. Joseph, instead of casting Mary aside for what appeared to be infidelity, listened instead to the angel in a dream. Mary wrapped her son in swaddling clothes and laid him in the only crib she had available. And it is that same Jesus, that very human Jesus, who experienced sheltering from his parents who now shelters us in our greatest moments of need.

Ah, Jesu, Jesu, Do thou be my sheltering.

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Photo Copyright ©2006, Jim Sabatke

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